You might perhaps have come across music by a British grime rapper named Looney or Loonz. A number of his tracks can still be found online at (no www.) soundcloud.com/looneytellem What you may not know is this was the original stage name of 25-year-old Londoner Che Wolton Grant, better known now as AJ Tracey.
He had performed as Looney for three years before deciding upon the name change in 2014. AJ bade farewell to Looney in style. His final release under the old name was No More Looney, a 33-track mix-tape which remains available to hear and download at www.datpiff.com/AJ-Tracey-No-More-Looney-mixtape.643211.html
Fellow grime MC Big Zuu is one of the guest artistes on No More Looney. He also happens to be AJ’s cousin.
“I’m keeping it in the family,” AJ smiled. “I get on great with my cousin. Always have done so collaborating with him is something we both enjoy. But my whole family is musical. My dad is from Trinidad. He was a rapper. My mother is Welsh but she was a jungle DJ on pirate radio. I started rapping when I was six so it was probably inevitable that I’d make my career in music.”
His career choice might have been predestined but AJ was initially set on an entirely different career path.
“I had decided to study criminology at London Metropolitan University. But the call of music was just too strong. I only really liked one of my university lecturers so it wasn’t as if I particularly enjoyed doing the course. I was still making songs on a part-time basis so it wasn’t a difficult choice for me to drop out of uni and work full-time on my music.”
Despite his initial output being available free of charge, AJ was not afraid to apply strict quality control. He scrapped both an EP and a mix-tape.
“A lot of artistes might have thought they were wasting money. But I regarded scrapping those things as an investment in my future. If I could listen to them and feel some of the songs were not good enough, I’m sure the same would be true for critics and fans. I wasn’t going to put out anything I felt was substandard.”
The quality of his musical output, allied to numerous performances on pirate radio, quickly earned AJ a loyal and ever-growing fan following. He became feted as one of the grime genre’s hottest up and coming MCs.
“I released two EPs in 2015, The Front and Alex Moran. There was no charge for either and I threw in another free EP as a Christmas Day gift to my fans. These releases really got me noticed and put me in the front rank of younger grime artistes.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant but I knew I was creating quality work. I knew the ability I possessed and the plan I had. I knew what I wanted to put out so I really believed things would go well for me.”
The following year saw AJ release his first pay for EP, Lil Tracey. He also recorded but did not release a trap EP, Rain.
“I wanted to diversify my output. I released a couple of tracks from Rain but decided the EP as a whole wasn’t good enough. I was becoming really well known so didn’t want to risk my career progression by releasing something which wasn’t quite right.”
His next EP, 2017’s Secure the Bag, became AJ’s mainstream breakthrough. It reached number 13 on the UK albums chart and spawned his first UK top 75 single, Quarterback (Secure the Bag!).
AJ’s subsequent singles have all become UK chart hits. But it was his self-titled debut album which has made him an internationally acclaimed artiste. AJ Tracey has so far peaked at number three.
“I wanted to prove I’m more than just a grime MC and I’ve achieved this with the songs on my album. There are loads of different genres on there but everything is cohesive.
“I didn’t want it to sound experimental. I wanted it to sound natural. That’s what it is because I enjoy music from all different genres. The album tracks cover different speeds as well as different styles. I even sing as well as rap.
“The album was built around three core songs which I really liked. These are Ladbroke Grove, Rina and Necklace. They are completely different in terms of topics, genres and moods. This gave me the basis around which I could develop the rest of the songs.”
The lead single Butterflies, which won him the GRM Daily Track of the Year award for 2018 and features his close friend Not3s, perfectly represents the variety of styles on AJ’s album. It is a nod to his West Indian paternal roots fusing Trinidadian soca with dancehall.
“It’s my take on those styles. They aren’t heard much on the UK music scene so I wanted to showcase them. But Butterflies is not a traditional soca or dancehall track. It’s like all the different genres on my album. Just as Country Star is my interpretation of country music so Butterflies is my interpretation of soca and dancehall.”
The confidence AJ has in his music is not only displayed in the songs which stray from his established style of grime but also in the eponymous album title.
“I’ve always thought it was cool when artistes self-titled their albums. It’s like expressing belief in the quality of their work. They’re saying this is my project, here you go.
“That’s the kind of thing I wanted to say about my album. But, there is also a second reason in that I’m about to begin a world tour promoting the record. I didn’t want anyone who sees me to be in any doubt about which album to buy.”


Emma Bunton

There has been a good deal of talk in recent years about a possible Spice Girls reunion. Plans for concerts and new albums have been announced but none have yet to materialise.
Something never mentioned amongst all those Spice Girls twists and turns has been new music from Emma Bunton. But the 43-year-old mother of two, formerly tagged as Baby Spice, has returned to the music scene with Baby Please Don’t Stop, her first solo single since 2007’s All I Need To Know.
The track is taken from Emma’s fourth solo album, My Happy Place, which is scheduled for release on April 12. It is her first album since 2006’s Life in Mono.
Despite reaching the UK top 10 with her first two solo albums, A Girl Like Me and Free Me, the failure of Life in Mono, which peaked at number 65, led to Emma losing her record deal with Universal Music. The album did spawn one big hit single, a cover of Downtown, Petula Clark’s 1964 international chart-topper, but this was a charity song for the BBC’s Children In Need appeal.
It is the BMG label which has shown faith in Emma’s ability to generate solid sales with her new music. Yet My Happy Place features just two new songs, Baby Please Don’t Stop and Too Many Teardrops. The other tracks are covers of some of Emma’s favourite songs. Interestingly, one of these is the Spice Girls hit, 2 Become1, which includes guest vocals from Robbie Williams.
The video for Baby Please Don’t Stop, which also features members of Emma’s family, is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=68NM1axZ9XE. At the height of her popularity, the song would have undoubtedly become a massive hit. Let’s see what happens now.


Sugababes

Despite Emma Bunton releasing a new single and forthcoming album, the latest Spice Girls reunion plan is still on course. There are a total of 13 concerts scheduled for May and June in large capacity sports stadiums across Britain and Ireland.
It now seems like the Sugababes could also be reuniting for a British and European concert tour. Singer Amelle Berrabah recently revealed that numerous promoters have offered lucrative contracts for the girls to re-form.
But unlike the Spice Girls, there have been four different Sugababes line-ups covering a total of six girls. Conflicts and contradictions characterised pretty much their entire history from 1998 onwards.
Fortunately, Sugababes fans cared much more about their music than the group’s internal troubles. Five of their seven studio albums made the UK top 10, including a chart topper with Taller in More Ways, while they recorded 18 top 10 hit singles six of which reached number one.
Their faithful fans would certainly welcome a Sugababes comeback tour. The only question would be which of the girls made up the re-formed group.


Drake

Ariana Grande may have made many headlines but it is Drake who has been named as the world’s best-selling recording artiste of 2018.
His 25-track double album, Scorpion, reached number one in 92 countries. It broke multiple global streaming records and was further boosted by massive hit singles such as God’s Plan, Nice For What and In My Feelings.
The Global Recording Artist of the Year Award was only established in 2013 when One Direction were the initial recipients. But Drake has now become the first artiste to receive the accolade on two occasions. He was previously the world’s top-selling artiste in 2016.